Archive

I’ve settled into a nice niche with respect to Twitter news. Yes, you can get some breaking stories truly from the masses via Trending Topics, but I also rely on two specific sources for news updates. One is for headlines and the other is for commentary.

Netflix gave The Grey Lady access to the rental patterns for their top movie titles in 2009 and the Times went to town converting zip code based data into graphical renderings of rental patterns for said movies. The generator is fun to play with and features some interesting patters like the limited, Manhattan and hipster Brooklyn appeal of Mad Men and the exclusively suburban draw of Last Chance Harvey.

I’ve got some of the more interesting maps, including a stark comparisons that perhaps reflects the persistent residential segregation of New York and the appeal of homosexually themed films in minority communities. On a more comfortable level, a movie about robots was most most popular among non-humans.

Monday night I got the email thousands of fitness freaks and/or gadget geeks have long been awaiting: my FitBit, ordered months ago, was finally ready to ship. True, I haven’t waited 13 months on pre-order status like some, but I was jazzed to finally be off the list and ready to ship. Unfortunately, upon checking my status manually to see if my Bit had actually shipped, I discovered that there was a problem charging my credit card… meaning that I’m still not off pre-order status.

No, despite the wait, my credit card did not expire while waiting for this to ship and charge. I’ve yet to figure out why it didn’t charge, but I’m not at the point where I am ready to say this order is cursed, but I just want my dang FitBit.

Sure enough, in her picture book entitled Going Rouge (oh, wait, that said Rogue?), the biggest blow to American political legitimacy since Monica was on her knees admitted that she doesn’t believe in evolution.

Elsewhere in this volume she talks about creationism, saying she “didn’t believe in the theory that human beings — thinking, loving beings — originated from fish that sprouted legs and crawled out of the sea” or from “monkeys who eventually swung down from the trees.” In everything that happens to her, from meeting Todd to her selection by Mr. McCain for the Republican ticket, she sees the hand of God: “My life is in His hands. I encourage readers to do what I did many years ago, invite Him in to take over.”

Sometimes I really doubt this country and am incredulous that so many of our citizens (and, sadly, many of our leaders) cannot reconcile science with faith. It’s not complicated, it’s just accepting that religious texts are written by men and framed by their understanding of how things operate. Whether a God inspired them is not vitiated by accepting that the Bible is not the actual, specific words used by God.

Heck, if you’re reading the Bible in English you’re reading a translation which, in and of itself, means necessarily that there is a human influence beyond the initial text. That is incontrovertible.